1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lawn mower adapted to collect grass clippings cut by a mower unit in a grass collecting apparatus mounted rearwardly of a vehicle body.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional lawn mower of the above-noted type is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,327 and Japanese Patent Application “Kokai” No. 8-322355, for example, which comprises a mower unit including a mower deck having bar blades driven to rotate about vertical axes and a grass clippings discharge outlet formed in a side end of the mower deck, the mower unit being attached to a vehicle body to be vertically movable, a grass collecting apparatus mounted rearwardly of the vehicle body, and a blower unit mounted above the grass clippings discharge outlet of the mower deck to be driven by a vertical shaft and operatively connected to a blade driving line, wherein grass clippings discharged from the grass clippings discharge outlet are forcibly transported to the grass collecting apparatus through the blower unit and a duct.
The conventional lawn mower noted above employs a belt transmission mechanism in which a blade drive shaft of the bar blade positioned closest to the grass clippings discharge outlet is interlocked with a lower end portion of an intermediate vertical shaft by winding a belt thereon while an upper end portion of the intermediate vertical shaft is interlocked with an impeller drive shaft projecting upwardly of a blower housing by winding a belt thereon, thereby to transmit power taken from the blade driving line provided above the mower deck to a blower input portion provided in a higher position. With this arrangement, however, the relay intermediate vertical shaft is mounted forwardly of the blower housing, as a result of which pulleys provided in the upper and lower end portions of the intermediate vertical shaft disadvantageously project to a large extent forwardly of the blower housing.
A blower drive mechanism including the intermediate vertical shaft is incorporated in the blower unit as one unit and attachable to and detachable from the mower deck. As described above, the intermediate vertical shaft is mounted forwardly of the blower unit, which increases a dimension from a front end of the blower drive mechanism to a rear end of a discharging sleeve projecting rearwardly of the blower housing. Consequently, such a blower unit is cumbersome to handle when attached to or removed from the mower deck and requires a large storage space when removed.